-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Tom Cruise should have been a rock star .

Remember him pounding his air guitar in not much more than a shirt and shades in `` Risky Business '' ? He turned a pool hall into a concert stage , strutting his stuff in `` The Color of Money , '' shook his moneymaker under layers of latex at the end of `` Tropic Thunder '' and took a chance , singing in his own voice in `` Top Gun '' and `` Magnolia . '' He always had the moves , and more important , he had the self-belief . He turns himself on .

Still , the challenge of a full-blown musical has apparently not been something he 's been in a hurry to tackle , perhaps wary of undercutting his action-man credentials . Turns out , some things are worth waiting for .

Will audiences show up for ` Rock of Ages ' ?

I do n't know how much they may have finessed his vocal tracks , and it does n't matter . He owns `` Rock of Ages , '' an addled tribute to '80s hair metal , from the very minute he appears . He emerges hazily from underneath layers of discarded groupies in a palatial hotel suite , sporting gunslinger body art and outrageous crotch jewelry , dispensing intensely eccentric , deeply fried philosophical nuggets before stumbling into the indoor Jacuzzi . Ladies and gents , meet Stacee Jaxx , God of Rock .

A caricature of already larger-than-life personalities Axl Rose and Steven Tyler , Stacee is very much a supporting character in Chris D'Arienzo 's Tony-award-winning 2009 musical . But he 's also the star of the show , the one everybody else is dying to see , to make or to emulate . Cruise has the charisma to sell all that even as he shows us a boozed-up captive to celebrity , sex and ego . When he does perform , he 's electric . However , Cruise is just as good in the dialogue scenes , whether it 's messing with club owner Alec Baldwin 's vulnerable brain or fending off an increasingly hot-under-the-collar `` Rolling Stone '' features writer -LRB- Malin Akerman -RRB- .

A karaoke musical in which almost everybody bursts into FM anthems at the drop of a hat -LRB- yes , even Baldwin , who duets with Russell Brand on a camp rendition of REO Speedwagon 's `` Ca n't Fight This Feeling '' -RRB- , by rights `` Rock of Ages '' should n't come off as a one-man show . But it 's an uneven fight , and you might find yourself itching for the fast-forward button whenever Cruise is off-screen .

Julianne Hough , who portrayed Ariel in `` Footloose '' and who appeared in the strikingly similar `` Burlesque , '' plays the movie 's ostensible heroine , Sherrie Christian , a small-town girl from Oklahoma who gets off the bus in Hollywood ready to pursue her dream of being a singer .

Instead , she finds herself playing out a PG-13 version of `` Showgirls , '' waiting tables at the legendary rock club the Bourbon Room and falling in love with a co-worker , Drew -LRB- Diego Boneta -RRB- . Drew 's own singing aspirations get considerably more screen time than Sherrie 's , but he still fails to make much impact . Hilariously , within hours of meeting her , he claims to have been inspired to write `` Do n't Stop Believin . '' `` It goes on and on , '' he explains modestly after giving her a taste of the first verse .

You could n't accuse the filmmakers of taking themselves -- or anything else -- too seriously . Director Adam Shankman , the veteran choreographer who also directed `` Hairspray '' -LRB- and a couple of episodes of `` Glee '' -RRB- , encourages the cast to amp everything up to 11 , or in the case of Catherine Zeta-Jones , 111 . She plays the mayor 's wife , Patricia Whitmore , crusading to clean up the Strip and shut down the Bourbon Room for reasons more personal than political .

All this sound and fury signifies next to nothing , and music fans may feel it 's a funny sort of tribute that mocks as much as it rocks . Even so , it 's good to see Tom Cruise letting his hair down . It 's a fun show if you roll with it .

` Rock of Ages ' : 8 fun facts about the movie 's costumes

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Tom Cruise stars in the musical film `` Rock of Ages ''

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Critic says he shines as Stacee Jaxx , `` God of Rock ''

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The film also stars Alec Baldwin , Catherine Zeta-Jones and Julianne Hough